A young man smokes a Cuban cigar in a pub.

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Tobacco giant Philip Morris might sell its cigar business, as it works toward a smoke-free future

Cigar sales lit up during the pandemic, but have faded since.

3/3/25 11:21AM

Marlboro owner Philip Morris International is considering a potential sale of its cigar business in the US as the company continues to shift toward its smoke-free products. The tobacco maker is looking for over $1 billion for its cigar unit, per Bloomberg.

Putting out its cigar business isn’t entirely surprising — the division came almost as an add-on when it acquired Zyn maker Swedish Match to focus on smoke-free products, seeing a ~22% dip in cigar shipments since the takeover. Indeed, the US cigar market as a whole has been gently burning down, with sales down ~23% in 2023 relative to the pandemic high of 2021.

Stubbing out

As sales of cigarettes continue to steadily drop, tobacco companies have long been searching for something to light up their sales figures. For Philip Morris, while traditional combustible products still take up a large part of its earnings, the company’s growth is now mainly driven by its smoke-free alternatives like IQOS and Zyn pouches, which bring in about 40% of the company’s total sales as of the latest quarter.

One bright spark in the market is high-end, handmade cigars — a trend which the machine-based cigar maker Philip Morris is on the wrong side of.

J. Edward Moreno

2/10/26

Hims built a boundary-pushing health business. Now the legal risks are catching up.

Hims is close to trading as if it never began selling GLP-1s.

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Hims to stop offering copy of Wegovy pill following FDA scrutiny

Hims & Hers said it has decided to stop offering its newly launched copycat version of Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy pill, after the telehealth company drew criticism from the Food and Drug Administration.

“Since launching the compounded semaglutide pill on our platform, we’ve had constructive conversations with stakeholders across the industry. As a result, we have decided to stop offering access to this treatment,” Hims wrote on X.

Shares of Hims are down double digits in premarket trading on Monday, while Novo Nordisk ADRs are up more than 6% as of 5:20 a.m. ET.

On Friday afternoon, the FDA said it would take “decisive steps” to restrict GLP-1 compounding. Department of Health and Human Services General Counsel Mike Stuart said on social media Friday he had referred Hims to the Department of Justice “for investigation for potential violations by Hims of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and applicable Title 18 provisions.”

Hims launched the product last week, a seeming copy of a recently released and patented drug, which immediately drew fire from Novo Nordisk and regulators.

Hims & Hers Comms on X

Shares of Hims are down double digits in premarket trading on Monday, while Novo Nordisk ADRs are up more than 6% as of 5:20 a.m. ET.

Hims launched the product last week, a seeming copy of a recently released and patented drug, which immediately drew fire from Novo Nordisk and regulators.

Hims, long flying under regulators’ radar, finally strikes a nerve with its Wegovy pill copy

It’s unclear if the pill Hims is selling works or if the FDA will allow it.

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$1.3M

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There’s still plenty of money to be made in brainrot. The top 1,000 Roblox creators earned an average of $1.3 million in 2025 — up 50% from the year prior — according to CEO Dave Baszucki on the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call.

Roblox paid out $1.5 billion to creators last year, meaning its top 1,000 creators took home about 87% of the total pool.

Like other creator economy giants, Roblox rewards its biggest creators for their contributions to user engagement. Creator-made titles like “Grow a Garden” and “Steal a Brainrot” substantially boosted playing time over the course of the year. In September, the company increased its developer exchange rate, or the ratio of in-game currency to cash payout, by 8.5%.

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Alphabet could buy some pretty huge businesses with the amount of money it plans to spend this year

AI outlays have gone full nut-nut. Even Google, one of the most capital-efficient businesses of all time in its heyday, is spending like there’s no tomorrow.

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